Fresh Water Dumping From Lake O Make Things Tough
Capt. Butch Rickey
September 28, 2008
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
I only had one trip to report on this week. I fished Friday with Jim Dougall, an old friend of many years, now. Jim brought along his good friend, Glen "Hilde" Hildebrand, whom I'd met at the ramp once years ago. These two are amazing. Jim is a young 76, I believe, and Hilde is 80. Jim is an inspiration, but Hilde is really something. At 80 he is as spry as a 30 year old, has no aches or pains, and no health issues of any kind. Jim teased that they'd probably have to shoot him just to get him to die!
I hadn't seen Jim in quite a while, although we are in contact via email, and he is my main source of jokes, and a funny guy. Hilde is a funny guy, too. And, they make quite a good team.
We began the day over at the B span flats, after I picked the boys up at the Waterfront Restaurant. Although bait was plentiful, the tide was moving so fast with the hard incoming tide, that it tended to spread the bait out, and I notice the other boats there were moving around quite a bit trying to find bait. I had Jim dropping the chum about mid-ships, and I was throwing the castnet well out in front most of the time. We had a great mix of shiners, pins, and threadfins, and a wide variety of size as well. I went ahead and threw a couple of extra times and really loaded the Talon's well. We were ready.
We headed west toward the Sound, and I decided to show Jim and Hilde a beautiful spot I'd never taken Jim before in Ding Darling. The water was already way up, probably because of the trillions of gallons of water being dumped down the river from Lake Okeechobee. The water is black everywhere in the southern part of the fishery. In spite of the strong tide, we couldn't draw a strike from a snook, or anything else. I was shocked. We moved on.
I decided to go with what had worked the last time I had fished a nearly identical tide. Once at our spot and in position I did some chumming, and we had action right off the bat. I think it was Hilde that hit the first fish, a nice redfish. We had what you'd call steady, but not hot action for a while, and Jim and Hilde put a limit of redfish in the boat, and caught a couple of snook and another redfish or two. Once the action seemed to be tapering off we moved down the edge a bit.
We caught a couple more snook, but the fish of the day came not long after we had moved when a big snook blasted Hilde's shiner and took off for parts unknown. I think the power and speed of the snook caught Hilde a little off guard. He got one good run out of her, and I saw the fish one time, and it was definitely a keeping fish if it was not too big. But, it was not to be as all of a sudden the line went limp, and the fight was over. Hilde said she broke off. But, you can tell the difference in a break off and a pulled hook. I told him the hook had pulled, and was soon proven correct as he reeled in.
We moved on and couldn't buy a bite at our next several spots. Actually, we were getting many of our baits scaled by snook, but they weren't eating them. They were just letting us know they were there. We finally hit another red at another spot Jim was not familiar with, but that was it. The tide was about done moving.
We were all starved, and decided to use the dead time on the tide transition to have lunch, and then come back out if everyone was up to it afterward. But, much to our chagrin, the Waterfront was closed for vacation. We considered leaving the Talon at the dock and going by car to have lunch, but I just wasn't comfortable with leaving the boat unattended and full of expensive gear with no one around.
So, Jim and Hilde decided we'd call it a day, and they would have lunch down the road. I bled the fish for them so they would keep that great redfish flavor and headed for the ramp. It had been a fun day with a couple of great guys, and very nice to meet Hilde. It had been a textbook gorgeous day, and we'd caught some fish. Throw in some great jokes, and you've got a great day!
Target Species:
Snook, redfish, trout
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